Posts Tagged ‘Gaza’

THE ice bucket challenge works if you have ice. The rubble challenge is catching on in Gaza, where local polemicists are using it to illustrate their condition:

An appeal to garner support for Gaza which imitates the wildly popular ALS Ice Bucket Challenge but uses rubble and dirt instead of cold water is picking up steam on social media. “I have to do something and to send a message all over the world about Gaza,” said Ayman al Aloul, a journalist who started the so-called Rubble Bucket Challenge on Saturday. When the 42-year-old discussed the idea with friends, some suggested that he use either a bucket of blood or shrapnel. “It came to my mind that it’s good idea to show the whole picture – how Gaza looks now, rubble, destruction, cement with sand, small rocks,” Aloul said.

A bucket of blood? Hamas could help with that. They smashed up the water park.

The text from the video tells viewers:

Hello. I liked the idea of the ice bucket challenge so I decided to invent the Palestinian version. We looked for a bucket of water; however, the use of water is more important than to empty over our heads. And even if the water is available, it is difficult to freeze it. And when we tried to make the Palestinian version, we looked around us [and] we find the place as you see. [Destroyed buildings and piles of rubble.] Therefore, I decided to use it, instead of iced water. This challenge is not for specific people, but for all people who sympathize with the Palestinian people. We do not ask for material aid. Anybody [who] wants to help should invent his own idea. We ask for solidarity positions, especially from those who have followers and [an] audience. We need these positions. [Gets rubble dumped on head.] We do not have water, but this is what we have. Perhaps I will not find water to wash up when I return home. So if you saw me dusty in [my] next reports, try to forgive me, and try to sympathize with us.

Us? Isn’t a journalist supposed to show and not tell?

Palestinian boys play on a water slide as others have a sunbath at a swimming pool in Asdaa city, Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, April 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Does that work? Do we really think there is no water in Gaza? Water is a hot topic in the region.

This is an inscription that is to be seen on the roads in the city of Hersbruck in Bavaria, Germany, April 5, 1935. It says: “City of Hersbruck-This beautiful city of Hersbruck, this wonderful place on the globe, was created for Germans only and not for Jews: Therefore Jews are unwanted.” (AP Photo)

DID Sainsbury’s remove kosher food in sympathy with Palestinians living under attack from Israel and, many would argue, Hamas in Gaza?

This photo taken in August, 2014 shows Associated Press video journalist Simone Camilli on a balcony overlooking smoke from Israeli Strikes in Gaza City. Camilli, 35, was killed in an ordnance explosion in the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014 together with Palestinian translator Ali Shehda Abu Afash and three members of the Gaza police. Police said four other people were seriously injured, including AP photographer Hatem Moussa.(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Leaving aside the monstrousness of the Nazi comparison on both historical and moral grounds…you’d have though that these people could at least be a little more creative with their references. It’s not like the past century doesn’t offer up a whole range of references to genocide or barbarism…yet we don’t see placards saying “Israel = Khmer Rouge” or “Israel = Suharto’s Indonesia” or “Israel = al-Bahir’s Sudan”.

You’d almost think that they wanted to deliberately single out the most traumatic episode in Jewish history and use it as a means to taunt and berate.

What is most chilling is that these sentiments are not just consigned to a weird old man with a placard. I hear them from supposedly intelligent people over dinner in NW London. Why haven’t they [the Jews] learned from their own history?? As if the Shoah was simply some pedagogic exercise to make Jews behave better.

A baby of a Palestinian supporter, with a of cloth, with a slogan on it attends a rally against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in Cape Town, South Africa, Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014.

ARE you an anti-Semite? If so, join the band of the righteous. These are good times. Israel is at war with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas are keen to take the war to Israel, firing rockets into the country. But they lack the ground troops and air cover to launch an invasion. Israel has the guns and the personnel to fight the war on Hamas’ turf.

It’s a foreign war between two unequally armed sides. The best outcome would be for the Islamists and Messianics to be forced to the extremes and for the people to unite as one State. But that’s unlikely.

So. We look at the now. And we see that this war has Jews with the better weaponry. And that upsets some onlookers in the West. Why? Brendan O’Neill wonders:

Such are the double standards over Israel, so casually entrenched is the idea that Israeli militarism is more bloody and insane than any other kind of militarism, that many Western liberals now call on their own rulers to condemn or even impose sanctions against Israel. That is, they want the invaders and destroyers of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere to rap Israel’s knuckles for bombing Gaza. It’s like asking a great white shark to tell off a seal for eating a fish. America must ‘rein in Israel’, we are told. ‘The international community should intervene to restrain Israel’s army’, says a columnist for the Guardian, and by ‘international community’ he means ‘a meeting of the UN Security Council’ – the Security Council whose permanent members are the US, UK and France, who have done so much to destabilise and devastate vast swathes of the Middle East and North Africa over the past decade; Russia, whose recent military interventions in Georgia and Chechnya suggest it is hardly a devotee of world peace; and China, which might not invade other countries but is pretty adept at brutally suppressing internal dissent. On what planet could nations whose warmongering makes the current assault on Gaza look like a tea party in comparison seriously be asked to ‘rein in’ Israel? On a planet on which Israel is seen as different, as worse than all others, as more criminal and rogue-like than any other state.

THIS is one of those little stories that can make you very worried indeed about the future of the human race. Some Twitter hashtag about Gaza (the place being bombed) was mistaken by fans of retired alcoholic footballers to be about Gazza. Confusion ensues:

Fans of former England footballer Paul Gascoigne, popularly known as ‘Gazza’, were left confused and fearing for his future as a Free Gaza campaign took off online.

Tweets with the hashtag #freegaza have been trending on Twitter in response to the violence in the Middle East, with users using their posts to urge Israeli forces to stop their assault on the Gaza Strip. The conflict, which started on July 8, has led to the deaths of more than 1,200 people.

But followers of the troubled player, who has become known for his battles with alcohol and drugs, mistakenly thought that he had been arrested and that the campaign was in support of his freedom.

RACISTS have seized upon the situation in Israel and Gaza. Koplow spots goings on in Turkey:

Ankara’s mayor Melih Gökçek, fresh off the heels of tweeting out pro-Hitler sentiments, urged his government yesterday to shut down the Israeli embassyin Ankara, referring to it as “the despicable murderers’ consulate” and stating that “they are 100 times more murderous than Hitler.” Not to be outdone, Bülent Yıldırım, the odious head of the “humanitarian relief NGO” IHH – the same NGO that organized the Mavi Marmara flotilla – warned Jewish tourists (yes, he said Jewish rather than Israeli, and yes, that was deliberate on his part) not to show their faces in Turkey and threatened Turkish Jews that they would pay dearly for Israel’s actions in Gaza. …

I get the anger and frustration, and I see it personally from Turkish friends on my Facebook feed and my Twitter stream, who are furious with Israel not because they are Jew-hating anti-Semites but because they deplore the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza, which they see as disproportionate and excessive. … But there is a world of difference between criticizing Israel out of a deeply held difference of opinion versus comparing Israelis to Hitler, equating Israel with Nazi Germany, throwing around the term genocide, openly advocating violence against Israeli nationals and property, and threatening Jews over Israel’s behavior. It is completely beyond the pale, and anyone who cares a lick about liberal values should be denouncing it loud and clear without qualification.

PEOPLE massed in London today to protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Many came to sue for peace. But their message of love was sullied by others who needed an excuse to call the Jewish state Nazis (a conniving insult that mocks Holocaust victims) and wanted genocide, demanding that Israel and, presumably, her inhabitants be annihilated for the good of all decent mankind:

At one point, a woman on the podium shouted “from the river to the sea” — a call for the elimination of Israel — and protesters responded by yelling “Palestine will be free.”

Heartfelt humanitarian concerns were much in evidence. But we also saw flags for the liberals and peaceniks of Hizbollah…

A PALESTINIAN man living in Gaza was so annoyed a mouse had eaten his wages that he strung up the wee beastie. He suspended the animal by its limbs. He then took the creature’s picture and posted it on Facebook, doubtless as a warning to other mice, who are, as we know from watching this expert, all Jews.

The French fries arrive soggy, the chicken having long since lost its crunch. A 12-piece bucket goes for about $27 here — more than twice the $11.50 it costs just across the border in Egypt.

And for fast-food delivery, it is anything but fast: it took more than four hours for the KFC meals to arrive here on a recent afternoon from the franchise where they were cooked in El Arish, Egypt, a journey that involved two taxis, an international border, a smuggling tunnel and a young entrepreneur coordinating it all from a small shop here called Yamama — Arabic for pigeon.

WHEN a child dies there are no winners. So, when an 11-month-old child died in Gaza during another battle between Iran-backed Hamas and Israel, the news can be only grim. The mood must be regretful. But it’s important to know the truth.

The child killed was the very young son of Jihad Misharawi. He was called Omar. Jihad has worked as a journalist for the BBC’s Arabic division.

Mr Misharawi’s brother and his sister-in-law also died from the explosion that killed the child.

The image of the dead child in his father’s arms was spread by media. It was heart-wrenching. It was also politically charged. The Palestinians have used deadchildren to paint the Israelis black before. (The BBC has bought into alleged fakery.) It would be wise not to rush to judgement.

TO Gaza, where the locals are celebrating the region’s munitions by naming their children after missiles and rockets. YNet news reports that Muhammad al-Shafi’i Abu Nassat has named his newborn son Fajr, after the Imported Iranian missiles. Amira Abu Assus has also named her son Fajr, Arabic for ‘dawn’. She says the lad will have – no pun intended – “a bright future within Palestinian resistance”.

Naming your kids after rockets will be good news for the Palestinian media who like to distribute and set up photos of injured and dead children. How long before Israel’s Iron Dome defence shield hits a Junior Fajr? How long before the BBC’s man in the know promotes it online?

IDF planes on Monday targeted and eliminated another four senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists … In a statement, Hamas said that it could not confirm that the four had been killed by the IDF, and said that they were “out of communication range.”

HAMAS has burned down Gaza’s Crazy Water Aqua Fun park, where men and women mingled. Well , so say Order Order. It quotes Middle East News Watch reports:

“40 gunmen tied up and blindfolded a nightwatchman before setting fire to an administrative building and restaurant. The fire engulfed different parts of the club, including an administrative building, and then spread to the main restaurant and cafeteria, which is three storeys high.”

BRENDAN O’Neill writes: “If you think it is cynical of Western politicians to kiss living babies during election campaigns, look at this Egyptian politician kissing a dead baby in front of the world media’s clicking cameras. There is something grotesque about the way in which dead Palestinian children are being paraded across the Western media.”

Of course, there is also something grotesque about dead children. But is it right that a child’s life is reduced to a photo opportunity for racists and politicians?

A CHILD has died on the Gaza Strip. She was just two-years-old. How did Achhad Hadeel Ahmed Al-Haddad, aka Hadil al-Haddad, die?

The PalTimes – a “Palestinian news site working to address and follow up on all political issues and daily committed to accuracy” – reports:

Zionist war planes bombed a house just west of Al Farouk Mosque near al-Zaytoun neighborhood, which led to the death of Achhad Hadeel Ahmed Al-Haddad, 2, and wounding her brother, 3, was slightly wounded.

ISRAEL is the BBC’s fallback story of choice. And the version of the action is presents is always enlighteneing. When writing about Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Barack Obama and reporting on talk of a return to the pre-1967 borders, the BBC produces this map (see right).

AS the UN ignores Libya, Bahrain and other enlightened countries that sit on its Human Right Council – we kid you not – in favour of debating Human rights violations in Israel and the Occupied Territories, news reaches us from Gaza, currently being blockaded by Hamas, that the hairdressers are ready to revolt:

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said that five male hairdressers were interrogated and forced to sign declarations that they wouldn’t work in women’s salons. Male hairdressers for women are rare in conservative Gaza where genders rarely mix in public.

THE Mavi Marmara has bene well documented. What went on aboard the ship bound for Gaza has been illustrated. TheTehran Times calls it “Murders on the Mediterranean“. Well, it would. You see, journalists in Iran aren’t all that free. Remember Neda Soltan?

TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi to thoroughly investigate the “suspicious” murder of Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot dead in post-election unrest on June 20.

In a letter sent to the Judiciary chief on Monday, Ahmadinejad stated that foreign media outlets and the enemies of the country have used this tragic incident to tarnish the image of the Islamic Republic.

A pox on those foreign media looking at a woman murdered by her country’s secret police. Tsk! godo job not many hacks bother.

DAVID Burchell compares Big Media’s interest in the Gaza flotilla with its interest in Iran’s human rights record:

Fearless Western journalists, we are told, boarded the Gaza flotilla at hazard to their lives, the better to pen florid descriptions of the predations of the Israeli “hyenas”; sentences that could presumably have been written with equal vigour and no less accuracy from the comfort of their computer terminals.

TO you hobnail boots, ski boots, jackboots, clogs and more as the Times reports that Muslims are allowed to throw footware, it being part of their culture. Cricket-mad coppers are not allowed to field the shoes and toss them back, although members of the Met Police XI should be if the Muslim chucker is out of his crease.

Christians are not allowed to throw shoes. Althogh the jury is out on sandals and toe-jam…

SCOTLAND YARD has bowed to Islamic sensitivities and accepted that Muslims are entitled to throw shoes in ritual protest — which could have the unintended consequence of politicians or the police being hit.

He has just survived – for now – the shelling of his home city of Gaza by Israeli forces. Suddenly, an older man erupts from one of the heaps of wreckage around him, coughing and spluttering into the light. This is Abu Mohammed, a ‘tunnel trader’, or one of those merchants who smuggles goods into Gaza through a secret subterranean supply network; food, matches and even livestock.

Or guns and bullets, Iranian soldiers and jihadis… But the best bit is yet to come:

As with the sequence that attempts to westernise the loss of children by bringing out an unnecessary Madeleine McCann analogy, the play isn’t perfect; but, in witnessing the raw power of a man recounting the death of his own daughters in crudely translated Arabic, its demand for answers about an atrocious time in a man-made hell carries huge moral and emotional impact.

Time, then, to blame the Jews for Our Maddie, finally. How can it have taken so long? But where is she? One woman knows:

Onstage in a spacious Las Vegas banquet hall sits a nervous-looking, dark-haired Danish woman named Connie Sonne. The 46-year-old retired police officer made a name for herself as a psychic in Europe by claiming she knows the whereabouts of famous missing British toddler Madeleine McCann. Sonne also says she can read playing cards through sealed envelopes using only a crystal. If she can successfully demonstrate her skills in this controlled experiment at the South Point Hotel, Casino and Spa, she’ll receive $1 million.

AT the Hizb ut-Tahrir (the – get this – Liberation Party) is in the Gaza Strip, it’s man stood before the map of the world shows Spain and Portugal in Empire Red, the Balkans in a luminescent shades and China a rather sickly pink.